Epilogue

Back to my ole' Kentucky home.
The last week in Vail was great and it really sealed everything up for me. Most of us stayed up all night on Saturday. People trickled off to bed and to leave for good throughout the night. Nine of us (me included) took a shuttle from Vail to Denver. It left at 4 am. We said our goodbyes to the few still at  the apartment. I knew in my head that I wasn't coming back but, even at this point I didn't really believe in my heart/gut that project was over. When we got to the airport, two of us had to leave right away to catch planes. All of us who could checked bags and then we all sat together for a couple hours. Five of us had flights around the same time so we went through security together. My flight was leaving soonest. As soon as everyone else got through security, I said my last goodbyes and hustled down the stairs to catch an inter-airport train to my terminal. The other four didn't make the train. As the door's closed and the train took off, they waved goodbye, I smiled back and they were out of sight. Vail Summer Project ended right at that moment.
I'm pretty sad about leaving all these people who I've grown with and came to love over the past nine weeks. I know that we all probably feel the same way and that God wants us all back at our colleges. But it still sucks.

Summer Project has been such a blessing to me. Thank you to everyone who helped support my going whether financially or through prayer!

What did project do for the people in the Vail Valley?
As I said in a previous post, most people there don't really want anything to do with a religion or a savior. They want to be self-reliant and they'd much prefer if you'd keep your faith to yourself. They're pretty skeptical of Christians who want to share their faith. So, a lot of our mission was to change people's perspective of Christianity. The ways our project sought to show the love of Christ was 1.) by volunteering in the community (cleaning up roads, helping build houses, moving sandbags for the fire department, helping out at the Teva Games and at the Iron Kids race,  picking up trash from the ski mountain, buying water for construction workers, helping people pay for groceries etc) 2.) by really caring for the people and really listening to them. Just getting to know people, building relationships and friendships, and loving them well. Relational evangelism was huge on this project.
We let our friendships and our actions bring up spiritual conversations by themselves (for the most part) which they will and they did. It was about respecting people and sharing the gospel at a pace they were ready for.
In other words, a lot of what we did was sowing spiritual seeds for a future harvest. That's not to say that there was no harvesting; there was some amazing crops in fruit! But much of the field was not ripe yet. (I hope you understand this Christianese). And of course I think we had a bigger impact on the area than we now know.

What did I learn?
A lot.
A couple weeks ago I wrote down a list of a lot of what I learned (I'm sure there's more that I haven't fully realized yet). I being really open with you here. I hope I make sense.

*Finding my identity in Christ alone-What I mean by this is that I can be satisfied in who I am and what I am. Much of my life I've been focused, usually unconsciously, on the social ladder. I always would try to move my way up. The ways I would do this were by sucking up to the people 'above' me and competing with people 'at my level'. This always left me performing and worrying. But on this project, God showed me how sinful and harmful this was. I know I need even more work on this but I have begun to experience the peace of not caring what others think and only caring what God thinks of me.

*Relying on God- This means giving up my worries and stress to God. Trusting that he is sovereign and that he provides. I think I learned this through traveling to Vail alone by bus and train, searching for jobs in a bad economy with limited hours/duration, and little things like taking good pictures/selling well at work. God is sovereign and as he tells us in Jeremiah 29:11" I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." This too has brought a lot of peace.

*The Power of Prayer- God answers prayers. This goes with the above lesson-in order to put your trust in God and rely on him, you must be in communication (prayer) with him. I've experienced a lot of answered prayers this summer in things like, finding a job, putting people in my path to have spiritual conversations with, little things like praying a group would get back from ziplining and immediately they arrive, praying for the words to say at an interview, praying for confidence, praying for God to take control of my emotions, praying/giving to him full control of each individual day.

*How to listen well and ask good questions- Thanks to the project book, Godspace.

*Getting better at meeting new people/talking with people I don't know- I learned this through having to meet 34 new people at the start of project and quickly opening up to them and trusting and relying on them. And work has helped with this too by making me speak to a large group of people I don't know.

*The Gifts of the Spirit- I've learned a lot about them and my view on them has shifted a lot, but that's all I'm going to say about that.

*Myself- I've learned a lot about myself. Analyzing my past, figuring out who I am, what I'm like. And having confidence in this. This 'lesson' goes with a few of the other ones like finding my identity in Christ and hearing insight from others.

*Christian Community- I've experienced nine weeks in an amazing community of believers that has its central focus on Jesus. It is so refreshing and livening. I've had communities of believers before but these always feel like we were seeking God on our own and not corporately. In Vail though the whole body (see 1 Corinthians 12 and Acts 2:42-47) was worshiping and seeking God together. It is a beautiful thing. Leaving that community and all those people was really difficult and sad.
Basically, project was real life. We all had jobs and coworkers and responsibilities but what made it different from back home life was the close, Christ centered community, living together with a sense of mission. If you don't have this type of community seek it and if you can't find it start it yourself.

Thanks!

Final Days--remoVAIL

Today is it. It's the last full day of Vail Summer Project. Tomorrow the shuttle I'm riding to Denver leaves at 4 in the morning. Quite a few people have already left.

Here's what the last week has looked like. On Wednesday I flew to Louisville for the Grieshaber wedding. It was awesome to be back in Louisville for a few days (except for the insane humidity). I had a lot of fun with friends from High School and College. Then there was the wedding itself which was awesome and beautiful. It was awesome to see those two enter the covenant of marriage with Christ at the center. As good as going back to KY was, I was definitely glad to be back in Vail for another week. I hadn't really had time to think about going home at that point and knowing that project was going on without me there was killer. On Saturday I flew back to Denver.

Went back to work for three days starting Monday. We spent most of that time training our replacements which was a little stressful. But at least one of them brought her incredibly cute puppy to work on Tue and Wed. Working there has been a huge blessing. My boss was really good to us, letting us drive his truck all summer and paying us generously (and even hiring us!).

Mt. of the Holy Cross

Thursday, I hiked up Vail Mountain pretty much as fast as I could. At the top I spent half an hour staring out at Mt. of the Holy Cross. I watched a huge storm roll in over the mountain and march over each lower foothill toward me. As the rain hit each one it would slowly fade to white. Took the Gondola down. That night the whole project got to go ziplining at the place I worked at.

Yesterday, we had our final banquet. The two head staff leaders came back to wrap everything up. The projects consistent theme has been "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Afterward we all took (way too many) pictures and then had a dance party.

Summer Project has been an amazing blessing that I'm just starting to understand. I know in my head that in 13 hours I'll be leaving Vail for good and that, honestly, I'll probably never see most of these amazing people again (in this life). I'll do one more post when I get home, to wrap up everything and give you (whoever you is) my full impression of Vail Summer Project 2010.

ReviVAIL

Here ya go:

13 full days left for Vail Summer Project. This is bittersweet. I am looking forward to going home and seeing everyone but I also have grown to love the people here. I'm entering the reflective stage, thinking over how I've grown (how God has transformed me) and what I've learned here (what God has taught me). More on this later.

Weekend Activities:
On the 16th we all (the girls too this time) drove back to around Leadville and camped at the same campground as the men did before. On the 17th we set off to climb Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in the state and 2nd tallest in the US outside of Alaska. It was a gorgeous day. It was a lot of fun and not quite as hard as Mt. Massive. We got up to the top in about 3 1/2 hours. The trail was really crowded. I'd say at least 300 people. We chilled on the top for a while. We ran a lot of the way down which was a ton of fun. Back at the campsite everyone slept for like 3 hours.    
Here's my roommate and I on top.

That night most of us went to see Inception which is a crazy good movie.

Yesterday (24th), Madisson, Nick, and I drove to the top of Vail pass and rode bikes down to Frisco and then over to Breckenridge. It was awesome. Between the pass and Frisco we had to pedal like 3% of the time because it was all downhill. Went through some beautiful scenery. It was pretty liberating. When we got to Frisco, Breckenridge was 10 miles away and a lot of this was uphill: still fun but harder. We took shelter from a huge storm in the loading dock of a high school and then under a tree. When we got to Breck we met up with Brooke, Austin, Jordan, and Taylor at a cool and relaxed coffee shop and hung out there for a few hours. It felt so good to be totally relaxed, carefree, and at peace.

Now for what I've learned. Sorry I'm still figuring that out actually. I can say that it hasn't been what I expected but it has been Good (in the fullest sense of the word).  And it has been full of growth and preparation for leadership next year. Maybe I'll have it all figured out better by next post.

 (looking forward to going back to Louisville on Wednesday for a few days for the Grieshaber wedding!)

eVAILuation

It's been a while since I last posted anything. I felt pretty busy with work and project activities. Here's an update.

There's still 3.5 weeks left in project!

On the 3rd a few of us, including me, worked security for the town of Avon (the next town West of Vail)'s firework display. We checked bags and stopped people from bringing alcohol into the venue. The fireworks were pretty good, supposedly the best in Colorado. They were pretty good but I'm spoiled cause of Thunder Over Louisville.

 On the fifth everyone drove North of Vail on a twisty dirt road for around an hour toward Piney River Ranch. The Ranch was beautiful. Situated on the bank of a lake that's right under some huge mountains. The reason we all went out there was for a final meal with the Staff. This was their last night. Student leaders were appointed, the staff prayed for us and said there goodbyes. It was sad to see these awesome people leave. At the same time though, their leaving is a good thing. Now we are on our own. Every aspect of project is up to us. We are responsible for our outreaches, our growth, and all the organization and finances. It's cool realizing we can do these things and do them well. Part Two of Summer Project has begun.

As a project we're starting to explore more. On Saturday 22 of us drove about 45 minutes to another Ski Town called Breckenridge. On Sunday after Church, some of us and some of our coworkers went to Denver for a Rockies game. Vail is starting to feel like home (which isn't a good thing, see below).

So, the bugs I thought were gnats in my last post are not gnats. They're called no-see-ums. And they're blood suckers. And they're hard to see. I finally figured it out after I kept finding these insanely itchy bumps all over me. I counted 11 on my leg today. Insanely itchy.

Last Tuesday Joel Osteen came to the zipline. Yeah, that Joel Osteen. He's probably the most famous person I've met. I don't agree with his theology (if you can call it that), but he was a nice guy and I took a picture with him. Look!

That same day we got to do the Zipline there for free. It was definitely cool and fun. But (don't tell them this) I would not pay $125 for it. Maybe $45 at the most.

God has blessed me with a great job for sure. The only thing that's bothering me about it is that I only work with people from Crusade. A huge part of the trip is to minister to coworkers. I'm realizing I'm going to have to be really intentional but relational evangelism. So, if you read this, please pray God would put people in my path that he wants me to show Christ to and that I'd take the initiative to go out of my comfort zone.

Speaking of comfort zones, a lot of us on the project are heading in one of two bad directions relating to project. The first direction is exhaustion. For these people, doing Project outreaches, on top of a full work week is becoming overwhelming. They're starting to despair and just get worn down. The other direction is vacation. For these people, Project is becoming just a vacation to a beautiful place or it is becoming comfortable and home. Complacency is the result. I think I'm falling a little bit into the second. I have to keep reminding myself to let go of comfort and step out in faith to a place where God can use me in this unique environment.

Please pray for our project that we'd be protected from both exhaustion and complacency. That we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and energized and encouraged to do God's work. Thanks!

VAILociraptor

No, there aren't (m)any Velociraptors out here, but I couldn't think of anything fitting with Vail in it.

Things are settling in here. We've been here almost four weeks. It's July now. The job hunt is over, for all of us which is amazing and rarely happens this quickly on any project and in this economy. God definitely has blessed us in this.

I'm working at a small photography company that just started business last Wednesday. It's a pretty cool job. We operate out of a place called 4 Eagle Ranch which is about a 20 minute drive west of Vail. On the ranch, there's a Zipline company. What we do it take pictures of the zipliners in action. Then we print the photos and sell them to the zipliners. I've probably got the best position of anyone in the company. I sit outside (in beautiful, high desert, scrub country) and take pictures of the zipliners as they come in from the 1st line and head out for the 2nd line. I'm getting to know most of the zip guides pretty well and I get to interact with the zipliners, too. The best part is the downtime (lots of it) between groups. I get to read, listen to music, think, or whatever for, like, 35 minutes an hour. Sweet right? The only downsides are the heat, the sunburns, and the gnats, but don't let me complain about something this great.

Last night at 'The Gathering,' which is kinda like our weekly meetings, one of the staff members, Brandon, spoke to us about Idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of anything other than God. Anything. It doesn't have to be a clear pagan god to be idolatry. We worship anything we put our dependence on, hope for, satisfaction in, or salvation for. It's crazy to realize how deep this spiritual adultery runs even in a believer's life (mine). Some of my idols are people's opinions of me, money-if I have money, feeling secure and if I don't have much money, always thinking and worrying about it, and food-thinking about food all the time, eating way too much, eating when I'm not hungry. What are you worshiping and sacrificing to in your own life?


The staff leave in a few days. Once they're gone, the project will be student run for the rest of the summer! I didn't know this when I signed up but I think it'll be a great chance to accept responsibility and take leadership of something.

"Grace to you and peace, from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 1:7

SurviVAIL - Mt. Massive

Sorry for all the Vail puns.  :D

I didn't get the job I talked about in my last post. I was really frustrated for a while because I had wasted a week and a half interviewing and waiting for the company because they had made it sound like I was hired for sure.

Last weekend the project split up and we had Men's and Women's weekends. The men drove an hour south of Vail through beautiful terrain and through Leadville, the highest city in the US (at 10,500 feet above sea level, twice as high as Denver). Here's a picture of Leadville.

We camped that night. The next morning we got up at 6, ate breakfast and made lunch and set out to climb Mt. Massive. Yeah, that's really what it's called. It's the third tallest mountain in the lower 48, and more than 14,400 feet high. It was an insanely awesome and hard climb.

It started off through a steep staircase-like rock formation. The whole thing was steep actually. We all started off together on the climb but we slowly started to spread out as we got higher. The staff who had all climbed mountains like this before pulled ahead. I was surprised the staff wasn't sticking with us students but now thinking back it was pretty cool that they left us to climb and test ourselves against the mountain without their support. As we got higher, we'd take breaks for 3 or 4 minutes to catch our breath in the thin air and let our muscles rest. But in just like 15 steps after the break, we'd be back to breathless.

Finally, the ridge was close. The last climb to the ridge was the most memorable to me. It was still early morning and this part of the mountain was in the shade. The ground was covered in loose rock that slid down when ever you took a step. It was impossible to walk up... so we crawled. Finally you would reach your arm over the edge and emerge into the sun and see the high plain below and the other mountains all around. Supposedly, you could see for 150 miles from the top. The wind there was insanely strong and cold. From here it was just a short hike to the peak. It was an amazing experience.

The descent was a hard too, but really fun. The huge patches of snow which had been so hard to traverse where now our way down. We sat on our packs or rain jackets or just our butts and slid hundreds of meters down. When we got to the bottom, we are all exhausted. All of us slept for a few hours and woke up with killer headaches because of altitude sickness.


On Monday I applied at McDonalds and Taco Bell and I got a call back that night for an interview on Thursday with McDonalds. Yesterday, a few of us helped clean the ski trails on Vail Mountain. We took a gondola to the top of the mountain. While cleaning up we found some pretty sweet stuff. Ski's, cellphones (some still worked), and a snowboard. They provided free lunch and a free lift ticket for this winter. Today I got a call from a guy who goes to our local church here. He's a photographer that another guy on project is working for. Aaaaaaaaaaand, I'm going to work with them tomorrow! Wooohoo! God provides.

positions aVAILable?

We've been here for 11 days now. Living here is starting to feel a little more normal but there is still that 'summer-camp' feeling.

For the last week we've all been looking for jobs. It's been hard finding work for a few reasons:  1.We can only work Monday-Friday. 2. We can only work 6am-5:30pm. 3.We're only here until early August. Nevertheless, God has really provided for our project. The staff says they have never seen this many people get jobs this quickly before. It's been awesome seeing God  provide our project with so many jobs. I don't have a job yet but I've had two interviews with a place called Vail Cascade Resort and they both went pretty well. I'm supposed to hear back in the next day or two. I'm pretty sure they will hire me.

The point of getting jobs while we are here isn't just financial. It's missional. Our staff likes to call our jobs 'Paid Ministry Opportunities.' This is the main evangelical focus while we are here. Building relationships with co-workers, sharing Christ with them, and hopefully bringing them into our community through our outreach events.

I'm starting to understand what the focus of this project is. Here's what I think God is wanting to teach me and train me in.
Grace- Understanding the gospel better, and learning to live by grace instead of law/performance.
Listening to God- Slowing down and taking time to listen for the still small voice of God. Praying that he would speak to me and give me insight.
Prayer- There's so much power in communicating with God and realizing just how faithful God is in responding to prayer. Becoming more faithful myself in praying.
Relational Evangelism- Sharing Christ out of an overflow of the heart's joy from knowing and belonging to Christ in through listening, understanding, and letting the Holy Spirit speak through you. I've had some experience sharing Christ with stranger through 'street' evangelism, but I've never been good at sharing Christ with those who interact with everyday, who see how I live and speak.

 I've had the opportunity to do lots of other awesome stuff, too: bouldering, campfires, swimming, watching movies as a group, took a picture with the mayor of Vail, ate sushi, getting lots of free stuff (swag), breakouts of worship songs, hiking the best trail of my life, playing in the snow!, drinking from a clear stream, riding a bear (see facebook), playing cards, and lots more!

surVAILance

Here's a description of Vail and the area around it:

Physical:
Vail is situated in a long valley stretching east to west, with Vail at the easternmost edge. I-70 runs down the middle of the valley parallel to the Eagle river. The valley is maybe a mile and a half wide at the bottom. It's surrounded by beautiful 11,000 foot mountains, some of the taller ones still are covered with snow. Since Vail is in a valley, it's stretched out a lot. The closest thing you could call downtown is called Vail Village. It's architecture looks like what you would see in the Swiss Alps and the town is mostly pedestrian. There's a free bus service around the city so it's really easy for us to get into the village--our project housing is on the opposite side of I-70 so we either have to walk to the pedestrian bridge or catch a bus.

Altitude:
Vail is at 8,150 feet above sea level (I looked it up and Louisville is 466ft above sea level), and you can definitely feel it. When I first got here I had a headache and it was a little harder to breathe. After the first two days, I don't feel the altitude anymore. The other effect of the altitude is the sun. Our staff kept telling usto make sure to wear sunscreen when we are out and about and that the sun is a lot stronger here. Well, they were right. On our second day here we volunteered with the Teva Mountain games and we were outside for 2 1/2 hours. I did put on some sunscreen but I wasn't too worried. Wow. The staff were right. Anywhere I didn't put sunscreen got really burned: back of the legs and arms especially. According to the internet, there is 30% less protection from the sun here because of the thinner atmosphere.

Cultural/Spiritual:
I've only been here a few days but the culture and values of this place are pretty obvious. Everything here is about athleticism.It seems like every person here is an expert in one or more outdoor activities, things like, bouldering, mountain biking, skiing, dog training, kayaking, snowboarding, road biking, mountain biking, fishing, fly fishing, running, hiking, mountain climbing, etc. The people here live for this stuff. I don't want to be too quick to label everyone here, but it's like outdoor activities are their religion. And if outdoor activities are a religion, Vail is a holy city, a pilgrimage site for this religion. People from all over the country and the world come to participate here. The people here are pretty evangelistic for their proffered sport and love to talk anyone about it, even stranger. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with outdoor activities in themselves. All these things are great, fun, and are an amazing way to experience God's creation. What I am saying is that a life with it's focus on and worship of these things is wrong. It's the same thing as all sin and idolatry, "It's making a good thing into a god thing (-Mark Driscoll)." The people here want to be as self sufficient as possible and they don't see a need for God in their lives. But the Vail valley definitely needs Jesus just as much as the rest of us.

I'm still looking for a job. I've had a few leads and I had one really good interview earlier today so hopefully that'll work out.

arriVAIL

Wow. It's so crazy actually being on Summer Project--something I've been planning for and thinking about for months.

Getting to Vail was interesting.
(Friday) Travel should have started Friday morning at 12:01am but the bus from Louisville to Indianapolis was more than two hours late getting to Louisville. Left Louisville at 2:20, and got to Indianapolis at 4:30am. Train from Indianapolis to Chicago. By the way, Amtrak is definitely nicer than Greyhound. Way nicer. However, I was more than a little disappointed when no one yelled, "All aboard!" Also, there was neither a Platform 9 3/4 nor snack cart with Bertiebots Every flavor beans.

Anyways, in Chicago, I had a four hour layover and I didn't want to sit in the station the whole time. I checked in my suitcase and walked around in Chicago for a while, to the Sears tower and Millennium Park. My train left Chicago at 3pm and we spent all day and all night on the move.

(Saturday) When the sun rose, we were in Kansas/eastern Colorado. Flat and Boring. But as we moved west, at the horizon's edge appeared the small gray silhouette of mountains. We arrived in Denver. Those mountains now loomed there, just outside the city. On the bus from Denver to Vail, we entered those mountains at last. The next stop was Vail and the people in the seats behind me were talking about how beautiful Vail is. We headed down a hill, around a curve, into a valley and there ahead is Vail. And chyea, it is beautiful. Nice job God. I took another bus to get to from Vail Village (downtown) to our housing. I got off the bus and there were other Summer Project-ers, arriving too.

The project staff had a cookout for us all and we started to get to know each other through that and a scavenger hunt. All those Facebook names and little pictures are real people now. People I'll live and have community with for the next nine weeks. Already we're growing closer. It's amazing to see how God is working for us and through us.

But this is a long post, so I'll cut it off here. More soon.

Prologue

It's only three days until I leave for Vail and I've finally gotten everything arranged to get there. Bus, Train, Train, Bus. That's how I'm getting there. I couldn't find anyone to carpool with and flying was too expensive. I'm pretty excited about the journey there: I've never been on a long train ride before and being alone in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Denver will be an adventure.
But of course, the real adventure starts in Vail. I can't wait to see how God will use me this summer. Spending a summer with 40 other Christians, pulled together from every part of the country, in the heart-wrenchingly beautiful Colorado mountains in order to serve God and grow closer to him... what an amazing opportunity. Thanks to everyone who has supported my summer project financially and prayerfully! Since you're reading this could you take a moment and pray? Pray, that our Summer Project team would be filled with the Holy Spirit, that God would use me and my fellow 'project-ers' to effectively show the love and grace of Jesus to the people in Vail, and that lives would be changed this summer (the people we're sharing with and us too!). Thanks!

A Quote that's been on my mind:
"Religion seeks to make bad men good, but Jesus seeks to make dead men live."